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Understanding Ethnic Realities among the Grebo and Kru Peoples of West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Frederick D. McEvoy
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Extract

This paper deals with certain implications of our ‘conventional understandings’ of the Kru and Grebo peoples of the Cape Palmas region of coastal West Africa. These ‘traditional’ scholarly understandings of ‘traditional’ political organization, when combined with misfocused questions about the nature of ethnicity, effectively preclude accurate knowledge not only of traditional polities but also of how a people's ethnic identity may be redefined with changing circumstances. Subjecting traditional perspectives as well as ethnographic data to re-examination may clarify the complex role of ethnicity among the Kru and Grebo.

Résumé

RÉALITÉS ETHNIQUES CHEZ LES PEUPLES GREBO ET KRU D'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE

Les Kru et les Grebo ne constituent pas des groupes ethniques uniques, comme il est communément admis, mais des catégories ethniques qui sont essentiellement fondées sur la perception externe des ressemblances qui existent entre ces deux peuples. Les Kru et les Grebo ont eu plusieurs identités ethniques dont chacune se distinguait par sa situation. Les observations portant sur les colonies de migrants semblent indiquer que l'‘ethnicité’ Kru et peut-être l'‘ethnicité’ Grebo ont été engendrées par la migration de main-d'œuvre hors des territoires d'origine et qu'en tant qu'ethnicités distinctes, elles jouaient un rôle extrêmement réduit dans ces mêmes territoires. L'ethnicité au niveau tribal ou dako se manifestait dans le pays parallélement à la confrontation entre différentes tribus (dakwe) dans les domaines économiques, politiques ou rituels; elle se manifestait également dans les colonies de migrants, constituent ainsi un second niveau d'ethnicité issu de la rivalité entre groupes de migrants qui provenaient de dakwe distinctes.

L'‘ethnicité’ au niveau du village existe aussi entre ces peuples qui ne sont pas centralisés. Les recherches effectuées parmi les Sabo, dako Grebo du Libéria, indiquent que, bien qu'ils soient nettement définis, les groupes rattachés à un territoire (village et dako) sont fractionnés par des groupes dispersés à descendance patrilinéaire (les tua); de plus, certains individus peuvent avoir des liens d'obligation matrilatéraux vis à vis d'autres villages, d'autres dakwe ou encore vis à vis du tua patrilineaire de la mère. De telles obligations ‘créent’ des réseaux de groupements d'individus qui se développent dans les différents villages et dans les differentes tribus; si bien que l'on assiste à un recoupement des populations au lieu d'avoir des populations isolées.

L'ethnicité au niveau du dako et au niveau du village se manifeste d'une manière irrégulière, lorsqu'on estime qu'un évènement a des prolongements ethniques. Les identités ethniques Kru et Grebo existent à peine dans la vie ordinaire des individus. Plutôt que de porter sur l'étude de l'‘identité véritable’ des Kru et des Grebo, les recherches devraient au contraire tenter davantage d'élucider les raisons qui gouvernent l'usage d'une ou plusieurs identités dans un cas particulier ou de nombre d'autres identités dans des circonstances différentes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 1977 , pp. 62 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1977

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